In 2003, the PR Division established the Heath Top Paper Award, in honor of the scholarly achievements of Professor Robert Heath from the University of Houston, USA. Dr. Heath's 20-year record, achieving ten top paper rankings, spanned the history of the PR Division. No other scholar has achieved this level of accomplishment or recognition.

Heath's sustained quality of refereed papers covered such topics as issues management, public policy, environmental health risks, constituency building, citizen risk concerns and risk communication generally, PR management of organizational crises, and an analysis of communication infrastructure. Each year, the winner of the Heath Top Paper Award is selected by division reviewers from a short list of outstanding papers.

Multi-stakeholder Network and Stakeholder Relationship Management: Reconsidering Power in Public Relations Relationships. Adam Saffer, University of North Carolina; Aimei Yang, University of Southern California; Maureen Taylor, University of Tennessee.